


When the Clock Struck Thirteen

by cyberpIanner



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Gen, Regeneration, Rewriting a scene i thought was pretty neat, i just like the bit with the ring. that was the inspiration for this one.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-16
Updated: 2019-10-16
Packaged: 2020-12-21 17:41:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21059732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cyberpIanner/pseuds/cyberpIanner
Summary: This was originally going to be a prologue to a long fic but i lost all motivation to write it. Please enjoy this funky lil rewrite of Twelve's regeneration.





	When the Clock Struck Thirteen

A dazzling honeycomb light flooded the room as the Doctor’s screams echoed off the TARDIS walls. The regeneration energy surged through every cell in his body, healing them as he endured the arduous process. It felt like an eternity had passed before the fervid blaze under his skin had begun to die down, leaving nothing but a scant tingling at his newly-formed fingertips. A sudden sinking feeling racked his heart as he felt the soft glide of his wedding ring slipping from his finger. It clattered to the floor, the noise ringing in the Doctor’s ears like an artificial tinnitus as every moment he spent with River Song played out at once before his eyes. The alluring emerald glint of the gemstone went unnoticed by the Doctor, who was too busy recovering from the hell he had just endured once more. 

The Doctor took a juddering breath, widening his stance and clinging onto the console to keep himself steady. It was a miracle the TARDIS had survived the regeneration without crashing; it had a tendency to do that and it was starting to get on the Doctor’s nerves. He breathed a sigh of relief and swung the monitor to face him before immediately gasping and throwing it back in one flick of the arm when he saw the reflection before him. A shriek of fear and disbelief escaped the Doctor’s lips as he took another peek at his new form and he rushed to grab at his hair. It was definitely longer than usual, that’s for sure. A quick glance at the full-body mirror on the other side of the room told the Doctor all he needed to know. He wasn’t exactly a ‘he’ anymore.

“Blimey,” the Doctor huffed before recoiling slightly at the sound of her own voice. “Oh, that’s weird - no, that’s very weird - not gonna get used to that any time soon,”

The air was tense as a few moments passed by without the Doctor doing, well, anything at all. She simply stood there, lost in her mind as she tried to piece together the scrambled thoughts in her head. She didn’t know who she was. Of course, she knew that she was the Doctor; she would always be the Doctor - but what else? What did that _ mean _? 

Out of the corner of her eye, the Doctor caught a glimpse of the lustrous green gemstone ring lying neglected on the dull metal floor of the TARDIS. A tsunami of emotions crashed down on her as she instinctively bent down on one knee to pick it up.

“River,” the Doctor breathed wistfully, gazing longingly at the lonely ring held in her fingertips.

She rushed to put the ring back in its place, delicately sliding it onto her finger as if it would shatter if she held it too firmly. She smiled, but her lips kept twitching downwards into a frown as tears welled up in her eyes. The ring simply slid back off her finger, hitting the floor with a soft tingle. As she gazed into the raxacoricofallapatorian jewel, she could almost see the planet in front of her: poppito trees stretching upwards into the emerald expanses of the sky above.

Shaking her head, the Doctor pushed her thoughts aside; dwelling on the past had caused her so much pain in the past and she wasn’t willing to stay long enough for it to do any more damage. In one swift movement, she had the TARDIS whirring and whooshing away as it spun through the sky and hurtled towards it’s next destination. The ring rolled across the floor of the ship, landing in some crevice where it would probably lay for however long it would take for the control room to redecorate itself. After that, God only knows how long it would sit untouched. 

Before she knew what was going on, the Doctor let a shriek rip from deep in her throat as the TARDIS was thrown off-course, launching her over the console and towards the doors in an instant. The doors opened with the force of her body hitting the wood and sent her hurtling out into the open; she tried to grab hold of the TARDIS in an attempt to save herself. The Doctor desperately wished for someone to scoop her up in a tractor beam like Captain Jack Harkness did to Rose all those years ago, but alas, no such help arrived. Her grip on the rim of the TARDIS slipped as it dematerialised before her very eyes, forcing her to stare into the empty night sky as she plummeted down to Earth.

The wind buffeting her hair and the increased G-force on her body was enough to drive her to the point of panic, the planet’s surface growing nearer and nearer by the second. ‘_ This is it’ _ , she thought. _ ‘I’ve only just regenerated and I’m going to die again,’ _. Time Lord physiology was far stronger than that of a human, but not even the strongest Gallifreyan could withstand a fall from that height. Not without regenerating in the process, at least.

  
Bracing herself for impact, she silently swore at the TARDIS for letting her fall so far. However, the Doctor knew full well that the TARDIS _ always _ had a reason. What the reason was, exactly, the Doctor feared she would never know.


End file.
